Driving through National Geographic

The drive to the orphanage took 3 hours. I'm still going to be vague about where the babies were / are, since our daughter is still there.

The drive was INCREDIBLE!!! I spent the 3 hours just staring in awe out the windows and taking pictures as best I could!!! I tried to take video as well. There were just sooo many things that couldn't be captured in a photo or video as we whizzed by. It was an amazing experience!! I commented that it felt like we were riding through National Geographic. :)

First, it was awesome to see more of the streets of Hanoi!!! Now I really can't wait to get out there!!!! We had intended to start exploring the day after we arrived. But my mom's delay meant that we had 2 recovery days in a row, and we still have not left the hotel on foot as of yet!!!

Once we got out of the city, there were zillions of rice paddies. We saw lots of water buffaloes, people in cone-shaped hats, men perched on little poles on the side of the road, people selling their wares on the side of the road (numerous in one area, all seeming to sell the same thing), etc.

Sometimes we went through towns and saw amazing buildings. They are so ornate!! And they're very tall and skinny!!! They are usually painted vibrant colors, but often only on the facade of the building.




Then the mountains started to appear!

The mountains were incredible!!! We kept driving up and up and up for about 1.5 hours!



Wherever there was a patch of flat land in the mountains, there were crops of some sort.


As we got further along, the houses began to get smaller. We noted that the doors were always wide open (and often were very large). And as we approached our destination, train tracks appeared.

And finally we entered a town with a very surprisingly wide street!! And we were almost to the orphanage!!!!! :) :) :) We arrived at 1pm.